Tech house is a subgenre of

house music House is a music genre characterized by a repetitive Four on the floor (music), four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 120 beats per minute. It was created by Disc jockey, DJs and music producers from Chicago metropolitan area, Chicago' ...

that combines stylistic features of

techno Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time (4/4) and often ch ...

with house. The term ''tech house'' developed as a shorthand record store name for a category of electronic dance music that combined musical aspects of techno, such as "rugged

bassline Bassline (also known as a bass line or bass part) is the term used in many styles of music, such as blues, jazz, funk, Dub music, dub and electronic music, electronic, traditional music, traditional, or classical music for the low-pitched Part ( ...

s" and "steely beats," with the

harmonies In music, harmony is the process by which individual sounds are joined together or composed into whole units or compositions. Often, the term harmony refers to simultaneously occurring frequencies, pitches ( tones, notes), or chords. However ...

and grooves of

progressive house Progressive house is a subgenre of house music. The progressive house style emerged in the early 1990s. It initially developed in the United Kingdom as a natural progression of American and European house music of the late 1980s.Gerard, Morgan; ...

.Aaron, Charles (2000), "Whose House? Tech-house and the quest for dance music's post-rave soul, ''

Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning * Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis * Spin (propaganda), an intentionally b ...

,'' October 2000.Bogdanov, Vladimir (2001), ''All Music Guide to Electronica: The Definitive Guide to Electronic Music,'' Backbeat Books, UK; 4th Revised edition, (page xiv). The music originally had a clean and minimal production style that was associated with techno from

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

and the UK. In the mid to late 1990s, a scene developed in England around club nights such as The Drop run by the former

Shamen The Shamen ( ) were a Scottish psychedelic band, formed in 1985 in Aberdeen, who became a chart-topping British electronic dance music act by the early 1990s. The founding members were Colin Angus, Derek McKenzie and Keith McKenzie. Peter St ...

rapper

Mr C Richard West (born 2 January 1965), known as Mr. C, is an English house music DJ, producer and rapper. He was the resident DJ at the early acid house "RIP" nights at Clink Street, London, and later was the co-owner/co-founder of London's The E ...

(Richard West) & Paul "Rip" Stone (co-founder with West of Plink Plonk), Heart & Soul and Wiggle run by

Terry Francis Terry Francis (born 28 July 1966) is a British tech house DJ and producer.Bush, JohnTerry Francis Biography, Allmusic, retrieved 2011-06-23 Francis won ''Muzik'' Magazine's "Best New DJ" award in 1997.Comer, M. Tye (1999)Mixed Signals, ''CMJ New ...

and Nathan Coles. Other DJs and artists associated with the sound at that time included Charles Webster,

Pure Science Basic research, also called pure research or fundamental research, is a type of scientific research with the aim of improving scientific theories for better understanding and prediction of natural or other phenomena. In contrast, applied resea ...

, Bushwacka!, Cuartero, Dave Angel,

Herbert Herbert may refer to: People Individuals * Herbert (musician), a pseudonym of Matthew Herbert Name * Herbert (given name) * Herbert (surname) Places Antarctica * Herbert Mountains, Coats Land * Herbert Sound, Graham Land Australia * Herbert ...

, Terry Lee Brown Jr., Funk D'Void, Ian O'Brien,

Derrick Carter Derrick Carter (born October 21, 1969) is an American DJ, record producer and musician from Chicago, Illinois, United States. He is regarded as one of the bestStacey Pullen. By the late 1990s, London nightclub

The End The End may refer to: Films * ''The End'' (1953 film), a film by Christopher Maclaine * ''The End'' (1978 film), a comedy by Burt Reynolds * ''The End'' (1997 film), a Canadian film of 1997 * ''The End'' (1998 film), a skateboarding document ...

, owned by Mr C and Layo Paskin, was considered the home of tech house in the UK. On the other side of the Atlantic one of the earliest innovators in the genre was Lucas Rodenbush, (E.B.E), who was releasing records on the US West Coast from 1995 onwards.

Characteristics

As a mixing style, tech-house often brings together deep or minimal techno music, the soulful and jazzy end of house, some minimal and very often some dub elements. There is some overlap with progressive house, which too can contain deep, soulful, dub and techno elements; this is especially true since the turn of the millennium, as progressive-house mixes have themselves often become deeper and sometimes more minimal. However, the typical progressive-house mix has more energy than tech-house, which tends to have a more “laid-back” feel. Tech house fans tend to appreciate subtlety, as well as the “middle ground” that adds a “splash of color to steel techno beats” and eschews the “banging” of house music for intricate rhythms.

Musical structure

As a musical (as opposed to a mixing) style, tech-house uses the same basic structure as house. However, elements of the house 'sound' such as realistic jazz sounds (in

deep house Deep house is a subgenre of house music that originated in the 1980s, initially fusing elements of Chicago house with the lush chords of 1980s jazz-funk and touches of soul music. Its origins are attributed to the early recordings of Larry Heard ( ...

) and booming

kick drum The bass drum is a large drum that produces a note of low definite or indefinite pitch. The instrument is typically cylindrical, with the drum's diameter much greater than the drum's depth, with a struck head at both ends of the cylinder. Th ...

s are replaced with elements from

such as shorter, deeper, darker and often distorted kicks, smaller, quicker

hi-hats A hi-hat (hihat, high-hat, etc.) is a combination of two cymbals and a pedal, all mounted on a metal stand. It is a part of the standard drum kit used by drummers in many styles of music including rock, pop, jazz, and blues. Hi-hats consist o ...

, noisier snares and more synthetic or

acid In computer science, ACID ( atomicity, consistency, isolation, durability) is a set of properties of database transactions intended to guarantee data validity despite errors, power failures, and other mishaps. In the context of databases, a sequ ...

sounding

synth A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

melodies from the

TB-303 The Roland TB-303 Bass Line (also known as the 303) is a bass synthesizer released by Roland Corporation in 1981. Designed to simulate bass guitars, it was a commercial failure and was discontinued in 1984. However, cheap second-hand units were ...

, including raw electronic noises from distorted sawtooth and

square wave A square wave is a non-sinusoidal periodic waveform in which the amplitude alternates at a steady frequency between fixed minimum and maximum values, with the same duration at minimum and maximum. In an ideal square wave, the transitions b ...

oscillators. Some producers also add soulful vocals and elements (David Chambers), and equally as much raw electronic sounds in their music. However, a rich techno-like kick and bassline seems to be a consistency amongst tech house music.

History

Since the early 2000s, tech house has spread in Europe. Although it has long remained in the shadow of techno music (propelled by artists such as Adam Beyer or Richie Hawtin in northern Europe such as Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden), tech house knows a huge success in Spain. Indeed, thanks to the expansion of new DJs such as Marc Maya, Oscar Aguilera or Raul Mezcolanza (all resident DJs of a box in Barcelona: the ROW14), tech house can compete with other styles of electro festivals like the Monegros Desert Festival or the Awakenings Festival. However, the highlight of tech house is also due to the promotion of this style of music by other DJs such as

Carl Cox Carl Cox (born 29 July 1962) is a British house and techno club DJ, as well as radio DJ and record producer. He is based in Hove, Sussex, England. Cox has won and been nominated for numerous awards. He has performed at numerous clubs and ele ...

Joris Voorn Joris Voorn (; born 25 February 1977 in Tilburg) is a Dutch DJ and record producer who lives in Amsterdam. Voorn is the co-owner of the Amsterdam-based labels Rejected (with Edwin Oosterwal) and Green. Biography A DJ competition in Enschede star ...

Modern resurgence

Tech house has become a highly popular form of dance music. As of September 2018, the

Beatport Beatport is an American electronic music-oriented online music store owned by LiveStyle. The company is based in Denver, Los Angeles, and Berlin. Beatport is oriented primarily towards DJs, selling full songs as well as resources that can be used ...

top 100 is filled with tracks by artists like

Green Velvet Curtis Alan Jones (born April 26, 1968), better known by his stage name Green Velvet, is an American singer, record producer and DJ. He is also known as Cajmere, Geo Vogt, Half Pint, Curan Stone, and Gino Vittori. Early life Curtis Alan Jones wa ...

Fisher Fisher is an archaic term for a fisherman, revived as gender-neutral. Fisher, Fishers or The Fisher may also refer to: Places Australia *Division of Fisher, an electoral district in the Australian House of Representatives, in Queensland *Elect ...

, Solardo, Patrick Topping, and Jamie Jones, all of whom incorporate elements of tech house into their work. This resurgence in tech house can be ascribed to the recent surge in popularity of analog synth sounds, as well as the popularization of tech house artists in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, through labels like Dirtybird and the booking of multiple tech house DJs at festivals like

Coachella Coachella may refer to: * Coachella, California * Coachella Canal, in California * Coachella (festival), an annual music and arts festival in California * "Coachella – Woodstock in My Mind", a 2017 song by Lana del Rey See also

* Coachell ...

and CRSSD. Not to be confused, the term 'Tech House' is also used for a newer, more technical form of Progressive House. In 2012 Progressive House producer

Guy J Guy Judah (born ), known by his stage name Guy J, is an Israeli progressive house, techno and Electro (music), electro music producer and Disc jockey, DJ who has released three albums and over 15 EPs since 2008. His recordings are noted for their ...

founded the label ‘Lost & Found’ . This label introduced a new kind of more technical, atmospheric progressive house which moved away from the traditional Trance inspired dance floor tunes and the instruments used to produce it, with an emphasis more on listening pleasure rather than dancing. With a slightly slower tempo the music was a more moody, heavily produced type of progressive house. While still up lifting it could also venture into melancholy and deep moodiness. Emphasis was on a heavy use of multi layered spacey synthesizers & sound effects very reminiscent of

Vangelis Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou ( el, Ευάγγελος Οδυσσέας Παπαθανασίου ; 29 March 1943 – 17 May 2022), known professionally as Vangelis ( ; el, Βαγγέλης, links=no ), was a Greek composer and arranger of ...

type science fiction soundtracks & soundscapes underpinned by deep baselines. Tracks were long, very melodic & mostly instrumental often with chopped choral vocal samples both male & female again moving away from normal vocals or spoken word vocal samples used on more traditional Progressive & Deep House tracks. As the decade wore on this new kind of Prog-House became more popular in underground clubs & many producers followed the Lost & Found imprint in producing their own highly technical tracks creating their own individual signature sound as they did so. Not to be confused with

Techno Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time (4/4) and often ch ...

House which is a different sub genre of music this new style also became known as ‘Tech House’ or ‘Tech-Prog’ because of the very high musicianship of the producers who made it. As well as Guy J other leaders in the field are Sahar Z , Navar, Blusoul, Monojoke, A.J. Roland, Chris Cargo, Andre Sobota, GMJ, Volen Sentir, Black 8, Juan Deminicis, Lemon8, Matter and Guy J’s other recording tag Cornucopia. Other labels that now specialize in this brand of Tech House include ICONYC, Balkan Connection, Dreaming Awake, Higher States, Or Two Strangers, Soundteller Records, Sound Avenue and Tale & Tone. This music is now one of the most popular sub genres of House music.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tech House House music genres